sargie

Thanks for sharing this; it's all very interesting stuff. One of the things that has struck me when watching these videos is the value of time when developing software. Archer's games were all high-quality and incredibly polished, and the fact that he had a lot of time (relatively speaking) to experiment, develop, and iterate on his products has a lot to do with this. This was not a luxury many developers had "back in the day" when games often had to be crunched out in a couple of months to meet an exacting deadline. When we look at a lot of the sub-standard games on the A8 that could have been better, it seems like a common factor that makes them so (apart from the inherent skill of the creator) is often the time they had to develop the work in and the target memory they were aiming for. All things being equal, more time and more memory means a better product. There are always exceptions of course (Donkey Kong on the A8 being an obvious example), but I wonder how much better many of the games we got would have been if the hardware had been 48K standard from the beginning and developers were given more reasonable time limits to execute their work.

The first thing you noticed, back in the day, was the fast 3D graphics, color and the amazing sound effects. Other home computers at the time (1980) looked and sounded prehistoric by comparison. After playing for a while the subtleties and strategies of the game became very impressive. There was a lot of nuance packed into that 8K of ROM. As a 10 year old kid, it was the closest thing to being ‘in’ Star Wars / Star Trek you could play at the time; which was big fantasy fulfillment. It really was one of those ‘magical’ games on its era.

From memory, as someone who used to be able to score several million points: There is not a lot to it apart from having very, very good reflexes and a strong trigger finger. Don't fly too fast into crowds of enemies. Go slowly and pick them off. After about wave 4, it's a lot easier to shoot all the things you are protecting except one and then pick that one up and carry it around for the entire level... that way, "mutants" do not get created. Trailers tend to fly up to the top of the screen when you pass them. Pass them back and forth as they make their way up then kill them at the top without any hassle. Don't fly under the storms. Don't forget to use the inviso / smart bombs when things get hectic. If fired upon with a "fast" bullet, slow down or speed up depending on your current velocity (do the opposite). If I recall correctly, after you reach wave 99 (or it might be a million points... I think it's wave 99) you cease to be given any more smart bombs. If you can play this level without needing smart-bombs you can basically play forever if you are good enough.

My server has been down but is usually seeding 24/7. It will be up again in a few hours. Sorry!

Thanks! Yeah, Encounter really exploits the benefits of the A8. So, when a sphere or missile is moving towards me, it’s player or missile?

Hello! I am a big fan of the Novagen game "Encounter!" - the fast Battlezone style shooter. Can someone "technical" please explain how this game works in terms of how are there so many big, moving objects on screen running at that speed? It seems like voodoo to me! I'd really appreciate any insights on "how it was done". Thanks! Sarge

For me it’s Dropzone. It’s a no-excuses early 80’s arcade quality shooter. Arguably the best “Defender’ type game ever made. A close second would be Encounter! Which one could argue utilizes the strengths of the A8 more than Dropzone. I’d imagine if you took a poll, the result would be Star Raiders.

When the fighter launches, when it flies, when you increase and decrease speed?

Every game he made just oozed quality. Along with Paul Woakes as one of the best A8 coders.

My recollection is the final level (8) is Blue “night” sky with stars. If you get to the end, you just warp to another level 8. You can restart the game on any previously completed level by pressing the correct # key (1-8) then Start. This helps a lot.

We’ll, if we’re talking A8 games it would be the following: Dropzone Encounter! Donkey Kong Star Raiders Pastfinder If we’re talking games in general it would be (at least this week ;)): Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild (Switch) Robotron 2084 (Arcade) Tetris (Gameboy) Impossible Mission (C64) Stardew Valley (PC)

This is a generalization with exceptions... I know... but: IMO the C64 had far more many great games made for it that never made it to the A8 than vice-versa. Apart from the obvious exceptions pointed out in this thread, almost all the really good titles on the A8 were available on the C64. The C64 could also (in general) make a decent fist of most A8 games when converted, even if they ran slower (like the Lucasfilm games / other 3D titles) or had fewer objects on screen (like Dropzone) or had different color palettes (like Pastfinder). To the average person, the difference between the platforms in this regards was minimal. The opposite is not true. This is one of the major reasons why the C64 was a better gaming option for most "back in the day"... I know when I got my C64 (after my A8) the only games I really kept playing on the A8 were those that didn't exist on the C64 or were obviously better. This usually meant 1st party titles or titles that had "originated" on the A8 or other Atari platforms like the VCS. Once more titles began originating on the 64 (1984-ish), the ratio of my playing on the C64 vs the A8 just got larger and larger.

There are far too many to list. Especially European developed titles from the late 80’s. Here are 5 of my favorites. impossible Mission. Paradroid. The Sentinel. Wizball. Armalyte.

I used to own an I, Robot machine, #49. Before the days of MAME it was the only way to play it. Great game, ahead of its time but too complex to be a successful arcade game of the time IMO.

The Novagen stuff worked very well on both PAL and NTSC. Woakes had amazing attention to detail.